In the 20 years since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government, led by the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), has built a robust legal and institutional architecture to identify and disrupt terrorist financing (TF) domestically and internationally.

Domestically, this regime consists of legal authorities and investigative resources that prioritize identifying and prosecuting terrorist financiers, along with a robust U.S. anti-money laundering/countering-the-financing-of-terrorism (AML/CFT) framework. It is also supported by efective interagency information sharing and analysis, the collection and reporting on TF by financial institutions and other regulated entities, and regular information-sharing and engagement between the public and private sectors.

Internationally, Treasury, in coordination with the Departments of State (State), Justice (DOJ), and other interagency partners, works bilaterally to share typology and transactional information and to engage and build capacity so our foreign partners can take their own actions to dismantle TF networks and prevent terrorists’ access to the international financial system. This has been complemented by work at key multilateral bodies to establish a global framework to combat TF, primarily through comprehensive international AML/CFT standards that help to prevent terrorists and other illicit actors from obscuring their activity in the international financial system. These activities have resulted in two important outcomes: (i) a clear global consensus that allowing designated terrorist groups to freely raise and move money through a country will have material consequences for that country (and others); and (ii) an international financial system that has become increasingly hostile to terrorists seeking to raise, move, and use funds.

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